לוחות ושברי לוחות לפרשת משפטים תשפ"ב

(1) Then He said to Moses, “Come up to the LORD, with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy elders of Israel, and bow low from afar. (2) Moses alone shall come near the LORD; but the others shall not come near, nor shall the people come up with him.” (3) Moses went and repeated to the people all the commands of the LORD and all the rules; and all the people answered with one voice, saying, “All the things that the LORD has commanded we will do!” (4) Moses then wrote down all the commands of the LORD.
Early in the morning, he set up an altar at the foot of the mountain, with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel. (5) He designated some young men among the Israelites, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed bulls as offerings of well-being to the LORD. (6) Moses took one part of the blood and put it in basins, and the other part of the blood he dashed against the altar. (7) Then he took the record of the covenant and read it aloud to the people. And they said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will faithfully do!”^-a (8) Moses took the blood and dashed it on the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD now makes with you concerning all these commands.” (9) Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy elders of Israel ascended; (10) and they saw the God of Israel: under His feet there was the likeness of a pavement of sapphire, like the very sky for purity. (11) Yet He did not raise His hand against the leaders of the Israelites; they beheld God, and they ate and drank. (12) The LORD said to Moses, “Come up to Me on the mountain and wait there, and I will give you the stone tablets with the teachings and commandments which I have inscribed to instruct them.” (13) So Moses and his attendant Joshua arose, and Moses ascended the mountain of God. (14) To the elders he had said, “Wait here for us until we return to you. You have Aaron and Hur with you; let anyone who has a legal matter approach them.” (15) When Moses had ascended the mountain, the cloud covered the mountain. (16) The Presence of the LORD abode on Mount Sinai, and the cloud hid it for six days. On the seventh day He called to Moses from the midst of the cloud. (17) Now the Presence of the LORD appeared in the sight of the Israelites as a consuming fire on the top of the mountain. (18) Moses went inside the cloud and ascended the mountain; and Moses remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

(18) When He finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, He gave Moses the two tablets of the Pact, stone tablets inscribed with the finger of God.

(7) The LORD spoke to Moses, “Hurry down, for your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, have acted basely.

(15) Thereupon Moses turned and went down from the mountain bearing the two tablets of the Pact, tablets inscribed on both their surfaces: they were inscribed on the one side and on the other. (16) The tablets were God’s work, and the writing was God’s writing, incised upon the tablets. (17) When Joshua heard the sound of the people in its boisterousness, he said to Moses, “There is a cry of war in the camp.” (18) But he answered,
“It is not the sound of the tune of triumph,
Or the sound of the tune of defeat;
It is the sound of song that I hear!” (19) As soon as Moses came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, he became enraged; and he hurled the tablets from his hands and shattered them at the foot of the mountain.

(1) The LORD said to Moses: “Carve two tablets of stone like the first, and I will inscribe upon the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you shattered. (2) Be ready by morning, and in the morning come up to Mount Sinai and present yourself there to Me, on the top of the mountain.

(29) So Moses came down from Mount Sinai. And as Moses came down from the mountain bearing the two tablets of the Pact, Moses was not aware that the skin of his face was radiant, since he had spoken with Him.

"And God said to Moses, carve for yourself" ... until "protect for yourself that which I teach you this day. Here I banish ..." And there is reason to question on these verses as follows: 1. The first question: why did God command Moses to carve two tablets of stone akin to the first [set of tablets], upon which God would inscribe the Ten Commandments that were on the first set of tablets. For if the second set of tablets were to replace the first set, it would be appropriate for them to be identical in all respects; however, the first set were both carved and inscribed by God, while the second set were carved by Moses, who did not inscribe them, and inscribed by God, who did not carve them. The second question: why did the second set of tablets have greater holiness than the first set, as indicated by the verse, "and no man shall ascend [the mountain] with you." And for the first tablets, the verse said "ascend to God, you and Aharon and Nadav and Avihu ..." Also, here the verse warned "the sheep and the cattle shall not graze adjacent to the mountain," while no such restriction appears with respect to the first tablets. It appears that the second tablets that Moses carved were holier than the first set that were carved by God. The third question: the verse states "and he called," as if to say he witnessed, " and I called in the name of God before you." We might ask, what is this testimony, for after this the verse states "and God passed before him and he called 'Hashem Hashem ...'" and if so, there are two separate testimonies, where for one it says "he called in the name of God" and in the other it simply says "and God called." And if the caller is Moses, we must ask if God stood beside him (as specified in the verse) why did Moses call out to him. The fourth question: why weren't all of God's promises to Moses enacted, as there were things He promised that were absent and other things that were added on. For God promised "I will allow all of My goodness to pass before you ... and I will remove My hand and you will see Me from behind." Yet we do not seen this enacted [in the verses]; neither God's passing His goodness before Moses, nor Moses seeing Him from behind. God also said, "I will proclaim the Name of the Lord before you, and the grace that I grant and the compassion that I show," which are the three attributes (God, Compassion, Grace) and no others. Yet, at the moment of action, He proclaimed thirteen attributes. And so He added upon his promise. And note that in His promise, Grace preceded Compassion, but in the recital of the thirteen attributes, Compassion came before Grace. The fifth question: the verse states, "God descended in a cloud and stood with Moses there." Why specify that He descended in a cloud? And what is the meaning of "H/he stood with H/him there" - who was standing with whom? Was God standing with Moses or was Moses standing with God? And note that at the revelation at Mt. Sinai, the verse states, "And God descended onto Mt. Sinai," but did not reference a descent in a cloud. For if one were to say that there was a cloud there, the verse does not reference one when God descended to speak to the Israelite nation. The sixth question: the verse, "And the Lord passed before him," should have appeared at the be ginning of the story, and not in the middle after the prior verse stated, "And the Lord descended in a cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord," for He was already speaking with him. So why specify, "the Lord passed before him," for after He proclaimed the name of the Lord there was no break in the attributes. And there was no separation between them. Note that in reference to the "standing" the verse did not say "before him", only that He stood there. Indeed, in reference to His passing the verse says "before him." And pay no mind to the teaching that explains that the phrase "the Lord passed before him" means that, in response to Moses' desire to see the Lord's face, the Lord changed the subject by enumerating the attributes, for this is not supportable from the grammar or the context. The seventh question: when enumerating the thirteen attributes, why did God repeat the attribute "The Lord" twice. For no other attribute is repeated in this manner. And one cannot say that once was for the "Koreh" and one is for the "Kriyah" as the Gaon proposes: he wishes to say that the verse should be read, "and the Lord called out, 'the Lord, a God compassionate and gracious." Yet the cantillation dissuades us from this reading, as the Ibn Ezra responds, and one also should not say that the repeated name is similar to God calling out "Abraham, Abraham" or "Moses, Moses." For no other attribute is repeated here, whereas repeated names can be found in instances where on is speaking down to another, such as from a master to a servant, when required. But calling out the Lord's honored name is not speaking down. And furthermore, after verses stated, "And the Lord passed before him," it is clear that it was God calling out and no other, so why would the verse need to specify that "the Lord passed by" and "the Lord called out?" The eighth question: why aren't all of theses names and attributes expressed in the same conjugation (i.e., an active verb)? Three of them are expressed in Pa'ul (Compassionate, Gracious and Slow to Anger). And it would have been more appropriate to say "Bestower of Compassion and Grace, who Curbs His Anger" as with the attributes that follow "Abounding in Kindness, Extending Kindness to the thousandth generation, Forgiving Iniquity, and Visiting Iniquity. And the Ramban writes that Compassionate, Gracious and Slow to Anger are all advjectives describing the Lord's elevated stature, therefore there was no need to say "Bestower of Compassion and Grace, who Curbs His Anger" because the name/attributes of "The Lord, The Lord, a God ..." is the subject of these attributes. But I do not understand his ways, and his writings are insufficient to answer this question. The ninth question: when the verse states "forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin" why does it not reference other acts such as mutiny, malice and guilt and the like. And why does Moses in his prayer after hearing the attributes in their entirety say, "Let the Lord please walk in our midst ... and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and erase the crimes." And the Prophet Micah says, "Who is like you, God, who pardons iniquity and passes over sin." And erases crimes. And the Psalmist said, "the iniquities of my youth and my sins do not remember." And erase the crime. Why did each one of these complete Sages independently invoke the erasure of crimes? And none of them recall the three attributes ("forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin") together that are referenced in attributes here. The tenth question: [raises apparent contradictions within the 13 attributes] The eleventh question: visits the sins of the fathers upon the sons. How can one think that this is just or righteous, as the one who sins is worthy of death. And why punish the sons for sings of their fathers, for the verse says, "Sons shall not die for their fathers." And I have already raised this issue in Parshat Yitro with respect to the Ten Commandments. The twelfth question: why did the Blessed One see fit to enumerate these attributes and names but not others which were recounted elsewhere, such as "The Almighty, the Great, the Powerful and the Awesome," or the name "God Almighty, "God of Hosts," "Righteous and Just," "Good and Beneficent," "Creator of Universes," "Living and Everlasting," "Giver of Pardon and Forgiveness," "Jealous and Avenging," "Lord of the Sun," and all of the other descriptions that the prophets permitted as expressions of God. The thirteenth question: in the order of the attributes, you will find that "The Lord, the Lord" are considered attributes of mercy and "Almighty" is an attribute of justice, other than Rashi who says it is an attribute of mercy based on a verse from Psalsm (22) "My Almighty, My Almighty, why have you forsaken me." But there is no merit to Rashi's argument that Almighty is an attribute of mercy, for it was out of a sense of justice that King David complained, why did you leave, God - it would be appropriate for you to punish [Israel] and not to forsake her. "Merciful and Gracious" are attributes of mercy and "Long Suffering" is an attribute of justice. "Abundant in Goodness and Truth" are completely merciful, and after them come the attributes of justice. Why were all of the attributes of mercy clustered together and all of the attributes of justice clustered together, instead of being mixed amongt each other? The fourteenth question: [How are the 13 attributes counted] The fifteenth question: The Blessed Lord said, "Before all your people I will do marvels, such as have not been brought in all the land, nor in any nation; and all the people amongst you shall see the work of the Lord, for it is awesome that which I am about to do with you." But the subsequent verses do not recount any miracles or wonders that were done after this Moses, "such as have not been brought in all the land, nor in any nation; and all the people amongst you shall see the work of the Lord," as the Lord said. What was the purposes of this covenant and for what purpose was it made. And I have parsed the verses in a permissible manner and these are all my questions. Response: "And the Lord said to Moses, 'Carve for yourself' ... and Moses carved two tablets of stone." The opinion of all authentic scholars is that Moses stood upon the mountain three times, forty days and forty night each time, for a total of four months and two days, with two additional days of descent in the interim. For on the day that Moses initially descended, he destroyed the tablets, and the verse (Exodus 32) then states, "On the following day, Moses said to the nation, 'You have sinned" ... and now I will ascend to the Lord and will stand and pray there forty more days until your sins are forgiven." On his second descent, the verse states, "Moses awoke in the morning," it was four months and four days from the sixth day of Sivan (the date of Moses' first ascent) to Yom Kippur, which was on the tenth day of Tishrei. And the order of the verses here supports this timeline. Additionally, we have the verse from Deuteronomy (5:15) where Moses recounts three times that he stood upon Mt. Sinai, forty days each time, as it states, "As I ascended to the mountain ... and I stayed upon the mountain forty days and forty nights." And the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, and this is the first stay upon the mountain. Afterwards, the verse states, "I prostrated before the Lord as I did the first time, forty days and forty nights ... for all of your sins," and this is the second stay upon the mountain (and with respect to this, Moses also said, "I prostrated myself before the Lord forty days and forty nights that I prostrated ..." which are the days of the second ascent, which is recounted again so that Moses could share the prayer that he prayed at that time. Afterwards he said, "At that time, the Lord said to me, 'Carve for yourself two tablets of stone similar to the first ones' ... and I stood upon the mountain as I did the first time, for forty days and forty nights. And this was the third stay upon the mountain. "And He answered," and with this answer the forgiveness was completed... And God said to Moses, "Carve for yourself," to inform him that he would not merit the complete vision of the testimony except through the Torah which was given by his hands, for without this Moses would not have achieved this level of spiritual greatness. And the reason for the word "yourself" was to warn Moses that he himself, and no other, should carve the tablets. For the word "yourself" connotes isolation, as it was written [with respect to Abraham], "Go yourself from your land ..." that Abraham should go without his father or relatives (as explained there). Similarly [with respect to the spies sent to Canaan], "Send for yourself men ..." that Moses should send them alone, apart from the rest of the nation. And here, God saw that the tablets encompassed two miraculous qualities. The first was that the workmanship was divine work, done in a miraculous fashion, and the second was the inscription, which was divinely written. When Moses shattered the tablets, the workmanship and form was lost, but the words inscribed were not destroyed or lost. Therefore, God commanded Moses to carve the stone to make new tablets, ready to be inscribed, for it was Moses' obligation since he destroyed the first set of tablets. However, He said the inscription would not be written by Moses, because he did not destroy

Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi further advised: And be careful to continue to respect an elder who has forgotten his Torah knowledge due to circumstances beyond his control. Even though he is no longer a Torah scholar, he must still be respected for the Torah that he once possessed. As we say: Both the tablets of the Covenant and the broken tablets are placed in the Ark of the Covenant in the Temple. Even though the first tablets were broken, their sanctity obligates one not to treat them with contempt. An elder who forgot the Torah knowledge he once possessed is likened to these broken tablets.

§ Having mentioned the principle that one does not downgrade in matters of sanctity, the Gemara cites a related issue. The verse states: “At that time the Lord said to me: Hew for yourself two tablets of stone like the first…And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke, and you shall put them in the Ark” (Deuteronomy 10:1–2). Rav Yosef teaches a baraita: This verse teaches that both the tablets of the Covenant and the pieces of the broken tablets are placed in the Ark. One should learn from here that with regard to a Torah scholar who has forgotten his Torah knowledge due to circumstances beyond his control, e.g., illness, one may not behave toward him in a degrading manner. Although the first tablets were broken it is prohibited to treat them with disrespect, due to their sanctity. A Torah scholar who forgot the Torah knowledge he once possessed is likened to these broken tablets.

It was stated: “Rebbi Jehudah ben Laqish says, two arks were travelling with Israel in the desert; one in which the Torah was deposited and one in which the broken pieces of the tablets were deposited. The one in which the Torah was deposited was put into the Tent of Meeting; that is what is written: Moses and the Ark of the Eternal’s covenant did not move from the camp. The one in which the broken pieces of the tablets were deposited was going out and coming in with them. But the Rabbis say, it was only one, and once it went out in the days of Eli and was taken prisoner. A verse supports the Rabbis: Woe to us, who will save us from this mighty god? A word which shows that they never had seen it before. A verse supports Rebbi Jehudah ben Laqish. Saul said to Aḥiya: present God’s Ark. But was the Ark not at Qiryat Ye`arim? What do the rabbis do with it? ‘Present to me the High Priest’s diadem’ Another verse supports Rebbi Jehudah ben Laqish: The Ark, Israel, and Jehudah, dwell in huts. Was the Ark not in Zion? What do the rabbis with it? The straw roof cover that was in the walls, since the Temple was not yet built.